11 DECEMBER 1997: The Minister of Environment Affairs and Tourism, Dr. Z. Pallo Jordan, stated today that government wants the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park in KwaZulu-Natal to be declared a World Heritage Site. Minister Jordan will personally spearhead an effort to ensure that the St Lucia estuary and the wildlife system it sustains are accorded this international status.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) will submit a comprehensive tentative list of prospective World Heritage Sites, both natural and cultural, to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (Unesco) World Heritage Centre, by the middle of 1998, to be considered for inscription in the World Heritage List.

To coordinate the preparation of the list, Minister Jordan initiated the formation of the SA World Heritage Convention Committee, chaired by Dr Tanya Abrahmse. This committee consists of representatives from the provincial departments of Arts, Culture and Environment, related statutory bodies such as the National Parks Board, the National Botanical Institute and the National Monuments Council and national Departments of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Foreign Affairs and DEAT.

DEAT officials, who form the committee secretariat, have recently completed a visit to all the provinces to coordinate the preparation of provincial nominations to the list. These nominations will be submitted to the secretariat by the end of January 1998. The committee will then evaluate the nominations from February 1998 and prepare the final list of sites to be submitted to Unesco's World Heritage Centre.

Minister Jordan says he believes the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park is among the top contenders for this honour, and he plans to campaign actively for the award to be granted. The decision to submit the Greater St Lucia Wetland as a World Heritage Site to Unesco forms part of a comprehensive plan to ensure the conservation of St Lucia for future generations and the economic development of northern KwaZulu-Natal. The DEAT will also state in its submission, how communities living in and around the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park will benefit from the area being accorded World Heritage Site status.